I need landscaping help
madi
back yard which we want to do away with entirely. I need to start from
scratch. Is there any good landscaping software to get me started or how to
find an inexpensive landscape designer? I live in Concord, CA which is (I
think) zone 9 and have a small budget.
Vox Humana
"madi" <ma...@nomail.net> wrote in message
news:_sQa9.6372$Y32.68...@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
I would suggest that you take a look at the library and/or bookstore for
landscape and garden design books. There are also garden design magazines
available like Garden Design and Fine Gardening. There are some books that
deal specifically with small spaces. Also take a look at the yards in your
area, public gardens, and display gardens at garden centers. Check the
papers for garden tours. Join your civic garden club. Take pictures and
keep a notebook of ideas. Make a wish list of thing you would like and
prioritize it from essentials to frivolous. Take a look at how the area
will function. List the activites you want to do there - dining,
entertaining, sports, etc. Do you have any drainage problems, the need for
screening or noise control, irrigation issues, lighting or sound system
needs? Once you start to analyze things, the design will probably start to
fall into place. Sometimes it is easier to design the negative spaces like
lawn or hardscape (patios, walls, walkways) and let the planting beds fall
into place. I would urge you not to try to do everything at once. Phase
the project in over a couple of years because you will learn and your lists
will change. Remember, a garden is never truly finished and all the money
invested in plant material will be for nothing if your soil isn't good.
Tom Jaszewski
wrote:
> Remember, a garden is never truly finished and all the money
>invested in plant material will be for nothing if your soil isn't good.
you're the best...nicest and most helpful post I've read in
months...thanks
tom
madi
"Vox Humana" <vhu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:t_Ua9.62420$N9.10...@twister.neo.rr.com...
Thank you for great advice. Definitely will need to do a lot of research.
Have some books and info already. I've seen Sierra LandDesigner and wonder
if it is useful or if another brand exists and is better.
Vox Humana
I can usually get Not for Resale copies of software and have looked at
Sierra's products and at least one or two more. I haven't been inpressed.
I think they would be OK for making a sketch of a design that you already
have in mind, but I think you will be so distracted with the technology and
akwardness of the software that all creativity will be lost. How may great
pictures have you make with the paint program built into windows? You may
see it differently, but I don't think you will end up with a great garden
design any faster with Land Designer than you will create a masterpiece with
MS Paint.
Vox Humana
Carolyn Jean Fairman
I'm in the same boat. I remodeled my house, and had to move out
during the winter through spring, when it rains in California. The
weeds were taller than I am, and I'm about 6 feet tall. Sigh. The
bermuda invaded my raised beds, as if not being able to raise tomatoes
and peppers this season wasn't bad enough. Sigh.
What I'm doing is using (free) cardboard and (free) newspaper and
(cheap) mulch to smother the bermuda. A local landscape supplier,
www.lyngsogarden.com has a cubic yard of bark mulch for $23. After
the remodel, I have little for the landscape budget!
Lay down newspaper 8-10 sheets thick and overlapping each other to
cover the bermuda. Then lay down the cardboard, also overlapping.
Cover with at least 4 inches of mulch. The bermuda can't make it up
through the cardboard (I had patches of it in my landscape cloth
covered areas, waving happily through the holes they punched to reach
the sun) and will actually die. Yeah! Straight black plastic works in
hard-to-cover places but will be bad for the soil underneath and
require later removal. The bark keeps it from looking really hideous,
too, during the winter -- it will take the entire winter season to
smother the grass. I haven't gotten the mulch yet and am speaking from
experience about the hideous part. Luckily I have a lot of bricks to
keep things from blowing about.
This process will do two things: kill off the pernicious evil known as
bermuda and give you a decent looking yard while you figure out want
to do with it in terms of overall landscaping. I'm killing off
bermuda with the plan of replacing some with buffalo grass, so I'll
have a tidy turf area that is drought tolerant.
I'm unsure of the perennials that will go in the areas I'm treating
though. Certainly the raised beds will return to their nice growing
space (the dirt is currently solarizing under plastic to kill the
invading bermuda and will return to the beds in March). Lots of
Sages, Penstemons and stuff like that. :)
Good luck!
--Carolyn
--
Carolyn Fairman
http://www.stanford.edu/~cfairman/